7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Multi-Currency ERP

7th March 2014

Your Business Operates Globally

Your business is international. You have employees in more than one country. Your customers and suppliers are in a variety of countries. Unless you expect to force them all to deal in your currency, you will need multi-currency ERP for your business.

You Want to Streamline Your End of Period Closing Processes

You buy and sell in different currencies every day. The exchange rates change every day. You still need to publish your financial reports on the fifth business day of the month. You could employ a roomful of clerks to standardize the reporting. You also could use a multi-currency ERP to manage the translation automatically and probably more accurately.

Global Compliance Reporting

Governments and regulatory agencies around the globe are interested in what you are doing. They want to know your payroll for a class of employee in a province of France in Euros and not in dollars or yen or any other currency.

Global Accounting Consolidation

Your worldwide businesses might all be the equivalent of a corporation in their own countries. You still need to consolidate your financial statements at the top level. Currency translation is an important part of the translation and your ERP should be your friend and help out.

Set Exchange Rates

The relative value of money changes every day due to many economic factors. Your ERP might manage the rate within itself or you might subscribe to an exchange service. One important consideration is the exchange rate for specific transactions. You quoted a price yesterday. You shipped the product today. Your customer will pay the bill tomorrow. You want complete understanding of what rate will be used for the transaction. If the rate at shipment is final, it should be locked even though the payment will be made in the future.

Payments in and out in Different Currencies

Your customers pay you (hopefully) often in their own money. You pay your employees and your suppliers in their own money. Multi-currency ERP systems enable these transactions to happen quickly and easily.

Manage Currency Fluctuations

As the relative value of money changes, there are opportunities to make money or to avoid a loss as the value of cash or other assets changes. Your ERP should be a tool to help.

About the author…

Tom completed implementations of Epicor, SAP, QAD, and Micro MRP. He works as a logistics and supply chain manager and he always looks for processes to improve. He lives near San Francisco Bay in California and can be found on the water in his kayak or on the road riding his motorcycle. Contact Tom at customerteam@erpfocus.com.